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is Optimal Finance Daily, Episode 2777. How

1:03

my partner convinced me to retire early.

1:06

Buy a purple life of

1:08

apurplelife.com. And I'm your

1:10

host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Mariam.

1:13

Now let's get right to today's post and

1:15

start optimizing your life. How

1:21

my partner convinced me to retire early.

1:24

Buy a purple life of apurplelife.com.

1:28

I have a confession to make. I

1:30

didn't come to all these wonderful conclusions about

1:32

how to retire at 30 all by myself.

1:35

In fact, there were years where I

1:37

completely resisted the idea. My

1:40

partner actually convinced me to try fire,

1:42

and I'm here to share all the

1:44

gory details. My partner

1:46

is an avid Redditor, and in

1:48

2012 he stumbled upon the subreddit

1:50

personal finance, where they mentioned the

1:52

concept of fire. This

1:55

subreddit eventually led him to the

1:57

subreddit financial independence and Mr. Money

1:59

Must-Out. where he learned more

2:01

about the concept of early retirement. At

2:04

the time, he had just started receiving a paycheck

2:06

from his first full-time job. He

2:08

was making money and already living frugally, so

2:11

he quickly got on board with the idea

2:13

of early retirement and tried to convert me

2:15

as well. As I'll

2:17

show you, I was resistant to the idea,

2:19

to say the least. Here's

2:22

a fun snippet from a Google Hangouts chat

2:24

in 2012. Partner.

2:27

When are you set to retire now? Me.

2:31

Not for a while, I think. Planning to put 12,000 into

2:33

my 401K, but

2:35

that's not enough to retire anytime soon. Learning

2:38

I might not want to, though. Current

2:40

me, what are you talking about? So

2:43

what got me over the hump? What

2:45

steps led me to overturning my entire

2:47

life, moving to the other coast, and

2:50

striving to retire by 30 instead

2:52

of some unknown faraway date in the

2:54

future? It started with

2:56

a conversation on a greyhound bus. My

2:59

partner and I were busing from Manhattan to

3:01

see his family, and on the bus, my

3:03

partner knew it was the perfect time to

3:05

strike because he had a captive audience, also

3:08

known as me. On

3:10

this fateful ride, he showed me how the

3:12

math behind early retirement worked with the

3:14

4% rule of thumb. I

3:17

wasn't very open to the idea. I

3:19

didn't know if I even wanted to retire. I

3:22

didn't want to give up the luxuries I

3:24

thought I needed, and I wasn't fully convinced

3:26

retiring that early would even work. My

3:29

mom retired at 55 after not even investing

3:31

in stocks until 40. That

3:33

was my general goal, and it seemed so far away,

3:35

I didn't feel the need to think about it. I

3:38

was already saving a little in my 401K and

3:41

had an emergency fund. Wasn't that enough? My

3:44

acceptance of the idea went through stages

3:46

over the next several years, which has

3:48

been documented by our Google Hangout chats.

3:51

Why does Google still save this stuff?

3:54

First, I ignored the idea. Partner

3:57

after sending a Mr. Money Mustache

3:59

article retire early. I

4:01

want to do this. I want to work until

4:03

the returns on investments are greater than my cost

4:06

of living. Me. What

4:08

do you want from the grocery store? Then

4:11

I got annoyed by it. Partner.

4:14

We've got to find some way to cut our housing costs.

4:17

Me. Damn it, I'm too stressed to think about

4:19

that right now. Current me. Hey,

4:21

be nice to your partner. No cursing at

4:23

him. And finally I

4:26

accepted it and began arguing retirement

4:28

semantics because why not? Partner.

4:31

Things aren't looking so good for our early retirement

4:33

plans. Me. What? How

4:36

so? Partner. Because

4:38

of vacations to the Maldives and all

4:40

my food spending and getting new computer

4:43

parts and all our clothes shopping. Me.

4:47

Uh, no. I'm still on track, thank you.

4:50

And I'm not going to enjoy myself less

4:52

so I can retire ridiculously soon. That doesn't

4:54

work for my lifestyle. Partner.

4:56

What's your current retirement plan have you

4:58

retiring at? Me. No

5:01

idea. Whenever I feel like it. I'm still

5:03

on track for early retirement. Early

5:05

equals before social security kicks in at

5:07

67. Partner.

5:10

That's barely early. Early retirement

5:12

means something like Mr. Money Mustache.

5:14

That is pre-40. Me.

5:17

One shopping trip of $54 isn't getting

5:19

me off track. Partner.

5:22

It's not about one, it's about

5:24

lifestyle. It took years

5:26

for me to come around. It wasn't until

5:28

late 2014 that everything clicked and

5:30

I dove in with both feet and

5:32

quickly surpassed my partner's obsession with fire.

5:35

Based on my experience being the convincee

5:38

in this scenario, here are my tips

5:40

for convincing a partner to early retire.

5:43

Number one, be patient. This

5:46

is the hardest step I imagine and for me

5:49

it was the most important. Those

5:51

two plus years where my partner tried

5:53

to convince me gave me time to

5:55

experience more of life. Time

5:57

for me to find a position that was less

5:59

stressful.